McCain: Americans led to believe Iraq 'some kind of day at the beach'

[bigtree]

Tue, Aug. 22, 2006

McCain: Americans led to believe Iraq 'day at the beach'

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain, who has been a staunch defender of the war in Iraq, said Tuesday that the sacrifices required were underestimated and Americans were misled into believing the conflict would be "some kind of day at the beach."

McCain, who has said the U.S. military should have gone into Iraq despite questions raised later about intelligence, said Americans feel frustrated because they had no idea of the toll the war would take.

"I think one of the biggest mistakes we made was underestimating the size of the task and the sacrifices that would be required. Stuff happens, mission accomplished, last throes...," McCain said during a campaign stop on behalf of fellow Republican Sen. Mike DeWine.

"We had not told the American people how tough and difficult this could be. It has contributed enormously to the frustration that Americans feel today because they were led to believe this could be some kind of day at the beach, which many of us fully understood from the beginning would be a very, very difficult undertaking."

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/state/15333454.htm


"So long as I'm president" (8-22-2006)

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hippiechick]

2. Why is the GOP suddenly all apologetic ?

And :wtf: are they going to DO about the disaster over there, aside from flap their gums at it?

Oh wait ~ it's election year.
And they aren't gonna do shit. :mad:

[CollegeDUer]

3. It's called appeasement

Act semi-critical of the war so as to appease people into forgetting that you voted for it and continue to support it whereas they don't.

[bigtree]

7. posturing

nothing more.

we should make them eat their words

[misternormal]

4. It was *Co, and the blind...

... supporters of the war in Iraq that thought it was going to be a parade down main street in Bahgdad... The Gulf War set the stage for the idiotic thinking of the Bushinator...

The MSM started the spin, spin. spin, and the *Bots fell right in line with it all...

I can tell you, I wasn't fooled from the very inception of this fiasco...

So pucker up McCain, and kiss some more * hieny.... And while you're at it... kiss mine too.

[Nickster]

5. Oh, so it's just because we weren't told about it. I see...it wasn't

because of the total lack of planning, rampant fraud, lack of proper troops, lack of proper equipment, lack of cultural sensitivity, etc, etc, etc.

[BOSSHOG]

6. Well

limbaugh and hannity and bush and cheney etc know nothing but a day at the beach and they share their "wisdom" with the lemmings on a daily basis. They know nothing of sacrificing to support and defend the constitution, they know only that they wish constitutional liberties only applied to their kind.

And who are you referring to when you speak of "we" john? "We" underestimated the size of the task and the sacrifices required? Don't include this veteran liberal who has opposed this war since before it started.

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. Uh, Senator, please understand this -

I am not dismayed by the casualties. By the standards of WW2, or Korea, or VietNam, they are paltry. Yes, every loss is felt, but we are losing a couple every day, not a couple hundred. It is not that I am weak willed, unwilling to see US casualties in pursuit of a good cause.

It is that this is not a good cause.

The fact that invading Grenada and Panama were easy did not make them right. The fact that occupying Iraq is difficult does not make it wrong. It is the fact that Iraq was not our enemy, that they were not a threat to us, that the invasion of Iraq distracted us from the much more legitimate goal of neutralizing OBL leaving that job unfinished after nearly 5 years, and that we have turned Iraq into a breeding ground of anti-American hatred and terrorism -- THAT is what dismays me.

I have no doubt that our military could take much worse damage, and the public would still support the war, if we were fighting a legitimate enemy -- but we are now in conflict with enemies of our own creation that would not exist had we not gone into Iraq in the first place.

We can accept sacrifices in a good cause. This is not that good cause.

So shut the fuck up.

[magellan]

9. Awww...BUSHit!

Dear oh dear, bless me.

[pazuzu]

10. Spin all you want. you will never be President

You won't even be the Republican nominee. The Reaganite xtians will shut you down in the primaries.

[Nay]

11. Another thing the pubs forgot to tell us was that WMDs was a big

lie to scare us into war.

[lectrobyte]

12. Americans were misled. That's such a nice way of putting it.

That "Mission Accomplished!" carrier PR stunt... you mean the war wasn't really over?


"Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that."
-- Donald Rumsfeld, November 2002


There’s a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people…and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years... We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.

-- Paul Wolfowitz, March 2003

[tnlefty]

13. Don't forget the 'greeted as liberators', 'will be showered with flowers'

Lost in the non-stop Bushit** was that the flowers and candies would be of the exploding variety.

[lectrobyte]

14. Yeah, I was gonna google that one up, but I got too depressed

after the first two.